The Cinema Corner – November 3rd

Movie of the week – The Killing of a Sacred Deer

After striking black comedy gold with 2015’s The Lobster, Colin Farrell and director Yorgos Lanthimos reteam for The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Farrell plays a surgeon who befriends the mysterious teenage son (Barry Keoghan) of a patient who died on his operating table. Things take a dark and surreal turn when Farrell is presented with a vengeance driven ultimatum. Tinged with dark humour, this veers close to horror territory and owes much to Stanley Kubrick in its eerie mood.

Murder on the Orient Express

Following the awful The Snowman, Murder on the Orient Express is another star-studded disaster. Kenneth Branagh directs and stars in a surprisingly disrespectful adaptation of the Agatha Christie story. The tone veers wildly from slapstick to sombre murder mystery, and the impressive ensemble cast is wasted. The final twist makes the preceding events nonsensical. Most bizarrely of all, the bloody train doesn’t even go anywhere!

Sorcerer

A monumental flop at the box office on its 1977 release, William Friedkin’s Sorcerer has been re-evaluated over the years, and now receives a rerelease at the Irish Film Institute. Remaking 1953’s The Wages of Fear, Friedkin delivers a movie that’s something of an uneven mess, but packed with some outstanding practical filmmaking of the like we’ll never see again.

Carrie

The Lighthouse continues its Stephen King season this week with screenings of genuine classics Carrie (Friday) and The Shawshank Redemption (Tuesday), cult classic The Running Man (Saturday) and not so classic The Green Mile (Sunday and Monday).